Mayor's Task Force on Housing Affordability

The Mayor's Task Force on Housing Affordability aims to make Vancouver a more liveable, sustainable, and affordable city. Co-chaired by former provincial cabinet minister Olga Ilich and City of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, the task force includes architects, designers, builders, non-profit associations, apartment owners, academics; and private, non-profit and public sector property developers.

The housing continuum

The task force recognizes a continuum of housing options available to households of all income levels. It ranges from emergency shelter and housing options for the homeless, through to affordable rental housing and home ownership options:

Ending homelessness

Shelters

Single room occupancy (SRO) hotels

Supportive housing

Rental housing

Non-market rentals (social housing)

Purpose-built rentals

Secondary suites

Rented condo

Ownership

Condos

Other ownership

In the continuum, the Housing and Homelessness Strategy addresses shelters, SROs, supportive housing, and social housing. Purpose-built rentals, secondary suites, rented condos, owner-occupied condos, and other ownership are addressed by The Mayor's Task Force on Housing Affordabilty.

The task force will develop innovative recommendations from an evidence-base that will help Vancouver become a more sustainable, diverse, and affordable city. It will prioritize affordability for those households with low to moderate incomes (which currently range from $21,500 to $86,500 per year.)

Work updates from the Task Force

Council approves the creation of a Housing Authority

Council appoints Chief Housing Officer

September 10, 2013 – The City has made good on another recommendation from the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability by appointing a Chief Housing Officer, Mr. Mukhtar Latif, an international property consultant from the UK.

Council receives final report and directs staff to implement action plan

October 4, 2012 – The task force presented their final report to Council on October 3 and 4, 2012. Task force recommendations provide a framework for progress, delivering a set of bold and pragmatic actions to confront out city's lack of affordability. Council directed staff to implement the Task Force's action plan with revisions to Actions 1, 2, 3 and 13.

Working Groups

Working groups are struck for 3 months, from the start of March 2012 to the end of May 2012. The groups will meet bi-weekly to examine issues in these four areas with the goal to expedite and expand affordable housing starts:

Form Working Group

Design flexibility, optimizing asset value, and understanding the barriers to affordability in the current building code and City policies, and how they could be altered to improve affordability

Flows Working Group

The wide range of City processes required before approvals are given to construction of affordable housing, including rezoning, development permits, building permits, and procurement of partners

Partnerships Working Group

Effective taxation policies and incentives by senior governments, legislation needed to enable a variety of ownership (tenure) models, optimizing support for renters, optimal use of social housing and non-profit assets

Task force roundtables

Task force roundtables provide input and expertise to the working groups.

Building Form and Design Roundtable

Led by local developer and architect Michael Geller, this roundtable identifies design and building code requirements that are adding costs to the provision of quality affordable housing, as well as design changes that could increase the supply of affordable housing in Vancouver.

Academic Roundtable

Led by UBC School of Architecture Adjunct Professor Erick Villagomez, this roundtable of distinguished academics studies the conditions that make it difficult to build affordable housing in Vancouver, as well as international best practices for improving housing affordability.